General

WorkOfArts Art Advice 1

Hey guys! May or may not remember me, I love giving art advice or critique. I can only give advice and critique to the best of my knowledge and ability, though. I've never taken an art class or had any type of formal training, so things I say might be different from what you may have been taught.

If you want critique, feel free to post below or send me a PM!

[header]Art Advice #1[/header]
[b]Line art - How do I do it?[/b]
Probably the most frequently asked question I see on game-related art forums is [i]How do I draw clean lineart?[/i]

There are two different ways you can approach line art.
To find the way you want to approach, ask yourself the question:
[i]Do I want to practice, improve, and become someone who's really good at art?[/i]
or
[i]Do I want to draw casually, spend less time, but still be decent at art?[/i]
Not everyone wants to be the best. But some do. So how to approach line art then?

[i]If you want to spend the time to practice and improve[/i]
Don't worry about lineart! I see so many artists with potential [i]wasting[/i] their time on making clean and crisp lines. Is that what you want to be the best at? Clean and crisp lines? You will get better at line art as you practice. But things like anatomy, value, color, and design can't be easily improved with repetition. You need to actually practice that stuff. You have limited time. Don't waste it on line art. Trust me on this one: You'll get better.
[b]Just draw messy![/b] A messy drawing with good design and anatomy is better than a perfectly clean drawing with terrible design and anatomy.
Here's an example
http://sta.sh/050mxngkdl2 : This is my lineart. No further improvements was made on the lineart before coloring. I don't waste time trying to perfect things with lines, I want my results faster
http://sta.sh/023wcihuk2lx : This is a later version of the same drawing. Not the best way it could have turned out but hey, a lot cleaner than before!

[i]If you want to spend less time and just hurry the hell up and learn it[/i]
The secret to clean line art is patience. Patience and simple strokes. Make fast strokes, not slow strokes. Make multiple strokes.
Don't draw a circle in one stroke. Draw it in three or four connected strokes.
You will fail a lot. Everyone fails a lot. That's what Ctrl+Z or an eraser is for. You'll draw a stroke and it doesn't look like what you want it to look like. Undo it. Even the best artists do that.
At first, when you try this, you'll fail a lot, and you'll ctrl+z or erase a LOT. But the more you do it, the faster you'll get, the more accurate you'll get.
Of course, if you want instantly clean lineart, this will take a while.
Here's an example of a [i]very professional artist[/i]
http://new.livestream.com/stanleyartgermlau/livedemo1/videos/2724240 (skip to 5:00)
This artist, Stanley Lau, has taken upwards of 2 hours to fully line-art a single character (the video only shows him drawing line art on a face, which still takes 15-20 minutes)
So be patient!

[header]Summary version[/header]
Don't worry about lineart. It's a bandwagon statement and honestly, you're better off focusing on other things than lineart. As you get better at drawing, you'll get better at lineart too. So focus on something else.
If you really want to focus on lineart, one stroke at a time, quick fast strokes. Don't draw a circle with 1 stroke, draw it with 3 or 4. Watch the video to see how a professional does it.

[b]If you liked today's Art Advice, tell me! Thanks for reading.[/b]